Explore St. Louis

Got the travel bug? Are the kids itching for a weekend of fun? Take the sting out of travel by buzzing over to St. Louis where you can indulge in a variety of creepy/crawly, educational and fun activities featuring the perennial kid favorite – insects. Plus, there’s a decidedly adult theatre performance sure to give grown-ups the heebie jeebies.

Get a bug’s eye view of the world via Bugs! A Rainforest Adventure Film on the giant OMNIMAX screen at the St. Louis Science Center. Creepy crawlers include an aggressive praying mantis and a beautiful butterfly fill the massive screen for a fascinating look into a bug’s daily life. This cinematic insect journey through the rainforest is on view now through January 5, 2006. Tickets are $7.00 for adults; children and seniors are $6.00.

The St. Louis Science Center is also home to one of man’s least favorite but most fascinating insects: the cockroach. A colony of hairy-legged Brazilian cockroaches is tended with loving care by the Science Center’s Discovery Room staff who will let visitors hold the big bugs. Among the many facts roach wranglers will learn: cockroaches have 18 knees and only six legs; the world’s largest roach is six inches long with a wing space of one foot; and roaches can swim and hold their breath for up to 40 minutes.

Kids can climb in a giant spider web at the animal-theme playground within the Children’s Zoo section of the St. Louis Zoo. They also can meet turtles, pet goats and bunnies, slide through an otter exhibit and feed colorful parrots a nectar treat. Located near the Science Center in St. Louis’ beautiful Forest Park, the Zoo is home to more than 6,000 animals, not counting the six-legged varieties found within the Monsanto Insectarium. You'll find more than 100 species of insects, spiders, centipedes, and other spineless wonders in the Insectarium along with a tropical butterfly dome filled with delicate butterflies. And don't forget to stop by The Living World for an up-close look at a colony of 500,000 leaf cutter ants. These hard-working bugs can be viewed going about their daily tasks behind a huge plate glass “ant farm.” A TV monitor provides a video close-up of the ants’ activities as they gather leaves, chew them and cultivate the leaf fungus for food. Voracious eaters, a leaf cutter ant colony can defoliate an orchard or coffee plantation overnight.

Gardeners seeking ways to control the insect population in their own backyard can stop by the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Kemper Center for Home Gardening for tips on keeping Japanese beetles, red spiders and other plant-destroying bugs at bay. Experts on duty also can describe how the friendly ladybug and other insects offer effective and environmentally sound help for a troubled garden. Meander through the Butterfly Garden, one of the many demonstration gardens on view.

Visitors to St. Louis can enter the world of the most delicate and beautiful of bugs – the butterfly – at the Butterfly House. The three-story crystal palace conservatory, located in St. Louis’ Faust Park, is filled with lush tropical plantings that provide a natural environment for more than 2,000 of the colorful insects who live there in free flight. Watch as pupa transform into gorgeous butterflies at the Miracle of Metamorphosis display and learn how to attract butterflies through garden design. Displays, films and educational programs detail the life cycles, habitats and unique characteristics of these fascinating creatures.

A giant praying mantis sculpture stands guard on the roof of City Museum. Described as a warehouse of adventure, the museum is located in the Downtown Loft District just a few short blocks from the festival marketplace of St. Louis Union Station. Visitors with “bugs on the brain” can search the museum’s patterned tile floors for intricate butterfly and flying insect designs. Other exhibits include architectural artifacts and ornaments in the St. Louis Architectural Museum, a working Glass Studio, a giant fish tank and a humorous collection of artwork created from recycled products such as watchbands and electronic parts. A sculpted bowhead whale invites guests to climb through its mouth for a journey through a maze of cave-like nooks and crannies filled with hidden reptile and insect sculptures.

Theatre-loving adults can scurry to the Grandel Theatre in Grand Center to see a hallucinatory story crawling with pests and paranoia as the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis presents "Bug." The play puts a sci-fi twist on its trapped characters' feelings of isolation and delusion, adding a touch of terror and a dash of humor. In short, it'll get under your skin and give you the creeps. October 16 through November 6.